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Smut

3.45 of 5 stars 3.45 · rating details · 1,254 ratings · 271 reviews

Two unexpected tales written and read by the bestselling author of The Uncommon Reader, Untold Stories and The History Boys.

The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson

Mrs. Donaldson is a conventional middle-class woman beached on the shores of widowhood after a marriage that had been much like many others: happy to begin with, then satisfactory and finally dull. But when she decides t

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Hardcover, 175 pages

Published May 1st 2011 by Profile Books(GB) (first published 2011)

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Feb 24, 2012 Jacob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-part-1, short-fiction

February 2012

Smut!

Smut smut!

Smut smut smut smut smut!

SMUUUTTTTT!

Smut.

But I digress (smut!). I've been reading through Alan Bennett's fiction lately (avoiding his plays for some reason, but I should probably read them too), and I couldn't resist a title or a cover like this. Smut! Teacup sex! And two stories:

Slightly smutty: To supplement her income, the widowed title character in "The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson" volunteers as a test patient for medical students and rents out her spare room to a...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Tamsin Barlow rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not as salacious as the title suggests but it did help me stay awake on the plane. Really lovely writing though I still have trouble imagining such seemingly milquetoast people have such racy secret lives. Isn't everyone nice and boring and non-duplicitous like me?

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Jan 26, 2012 Eleanor M. Cleverly rated it 3 of 5 stars

I hesitate not giving this book five stars. I didn't, though not for some lack in the quality of Bennett's writing, wit of storytelling, ingenuity of plot, or the amount of pleasure I had in reading these two short, but without doubt, simple, rich stories, but because I reserve that rating for only those books that are utterly life changing. While Bennett is a brilliant writer, and Smut is a charming account of the tawdry details in constrained WASP living, it will not fundamentally alter anythi...more

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Apr 26, 2013 M M rated it 3 of 5 stars

Alan Bennett's twofer, titled Smut: Two Unseemly Stories has an unjudgmental touch with much sympathy for his characters, and he wields it lightly here. In one story, a widow joins a local teaching hospital as a diagnostic aid; the professor is attracted to her; the students think her 'cool' because she has allowed her bedsit tenants to perform sex acts in her presence in lieu of rent. Bennett explores sexual awakening in middle age: the widow is impressed by the versatility and energy of the yo...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Dawn Peers rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Bennett back to Talking Heads Excellence"

Don't take this book at title value : whilst there is a strong sexual content in Alan Bennett's wryly observant "Smut", the keyhole on the front cover should suggest to you that what goes on behind locked doors, tasteless it is not; it is also not, as Bennett would have us understand, beyond the ordinary.

In his first story, Bennett takes us back to his Talking Heads best, and if you haven't already read Talking Heads then I suggest you do so, or at least...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Melinda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, fiction, good-audio-books, short-stories

After my great enjoyment of The Uncommon Reader, I decided I really needed to track down some more Alan Bennett. And Smut happened to be available through Audible, so I decided to spend my credit on it. Normally I am very wary of authors reading their own work (for example, someone needs to tell Barbara Kingsolver that she's a really good author but she needs to leave the audio narration to a professional). However, Alan Bennett does a great job on this one. Perhaps it's his mild, unexcitable na...more

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Feb 08, 2013 Mike Duron rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked up this book basically by chance while on a visit to my neighborhood public library, so I should mention right off the bat I didn't pay for it. Also, if you're looking for a synopsis of the stories in the book, I'll let you know right now you should look somewhere else. I make it a point not to write a synopsis of any book I review -- instead, I share my observations as a reader and a writer. Don't despair if you were looking for a synopsis though, since the vast majority of 'reviews' o...more I picked up this book basically by chance while on a visit to my neighborhood public library, so I should mention right off the bat I didn't pay for it. Also, if you're looking for a synopsis of the stories in the book, I'll let you know right now you should look somewhere else. I make it a point not to write a synopsis of any book I review -- instead, I share my observations as a reader and a writer. Don't despair if you were looking for a synopsis though, since the vast majority of 'reviews' on the web basically consist of that and little more.

There are only two stories in this book, which is priced at $14USD right inside the jacket. This is, of course, approaching a crime nowadays, since most e-book authors include much more content in a typical e-book that's priced at right around 1/14th that dollar amount. I guess the fact you get a nicely-decorated, old-fashioned book to prop up your coffee table or hold your bedroom door open (It's actually the perfect size for this!) once you're done reading it makes for a nice bonus, though I wouldn't say it's worth an extra twelve or thirteen dollars.

The first thing that struck me about these stories is how smoothly Bennett drew me into the first of the two stories in the book, "The Greening of Mrs Donaldson." It reminded me of Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow," in the sense that I didn't know where I was or what was going on right from the start. As with Pynchon's masterpiece though, if you take the Nestea plunge and just continue reading, soon the fog of confusion fades and you're inside a wonderfully interesting world of characters wonderfully drawn in words with all the efficiency and mastery of an Ingres or Picasso line drawing.

The only element in the technical telling of both tales that really annoyed me was Bennett's apparently arbitrary change in verb tenses. He switched from the past to the present so quickly I almost got nauseous. At one point in the second story, "The Shielding of Mrs Forbes," he opens a section this way:

"IT IS A FEW DAYS LATER and Betty is dawdling over her computer.
'Did you ever wonder,' she said, '{spoiler deleted -- point made}'"

The rest of the section continues in the past tense.

So, if this sort of thing doesn't distract you too much, the rest of the storytelling, I think, is technically brilliant. The characters developed in a believable way. Their motivations for changing are realistic. The risks they take fit their personalities, for the most part. And, although some aren't fleshed out as well as I thought they should have been (Betty, for example), these stories are enjoyable and I wound up reading the book from beginning to end during the course of one afternoon, evening, and early (this) morning.(less)

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Feb 08, 2013 Boris Limpopo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bennett, Alan (2010-2011). Smut: Stories. New York: Picador. 2012. ISBN 1846685265. Pagine 214. 7,78 €

Un lettore onnivoro e impenitente si deve aspettare di tutto dai suoi impulsi. Anche di essere indotto a comprare e a leggere un libro da Facebook. La storia è questa (anche se su FB tutto è ultrapubblico tacerò i nomi): il 27 luglio 2012 un’amica (nell’accezione FB ma, mi auguro, anche in quella più ampia della vita reale) pubblica il seguente “aggiornamento di stato”: «Eh sì. Per me, letturine...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Kieran Walsh rated it 5 of 5 stars

How could any reader not love Bennett? Ever since The Madness of King George and An Uncommon Reader I’ve been a huge fan. I felt like Smut was an epic example of a writing style that’s matured beautifully. Coming of age stories are always the great stuff of books but coming of age for an older character is even more heroic. You want them to evolve and be the change because a wasted life is so tragic.
The two stories are brilliant (though I did rather The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson). Due to widow...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Marianne rated it 4 of 5 stars

“Smut: two unseemly stories” is, as the title suggests, an omnibus of two short stories by English author and actor, Alan Bennett. The first story is The Greening of Mrs Donaldson. Mrs Donaldson, recently widowed, finds herself a little short on cash and decides to take a student couple as lodgers. When they find themselves unable to pay the rent, they come to a novel arrangement with their landlady. Mrs Donaldson’s other source of income is working as a Simulated Patient in medical student trai...more

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May 27, 2012 Robert Carraher rated it 5 of 5 stars

Smut: Stories

Imagine, if you will, that the cast of Monte Python got together and wrote dirty little stories. Only they wrote them in a somewhat serious mode – of course, being Monte Python they would need to be full of tongue in cheek, satirical and cynical humor that shined a mirror back at the inanities of real life and real people and society in general.

Alan Bennett is one of Britain's most beloved playwrights, screenwriters, actors and authors. Oxford educated , he studied history and perf...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book “Smut” is my first taste of English author, Mr. Alan Bennett. Bennett’s short little two-story novella was absolutely delightful and delicious. Although the title implies a scandalous read, it was in fact, pretty tame for what I was expecting. Bennett addresses straight sex, gay sex, voyeurism, and extra martial sex along with a smidge of boring sex all over proper afternoon tea and with a hearty dose of British humor.

The first story is the “Greening of Mrs. Donaldson” about a 50-somet...more The book “Smut” is my first taste of English author, Mr. Alan Bennett. Bennett’s short little two-story novella was absolutely delightful and delicious. Although the title implies a scandalous read, it was in fact, pretty tame for what I was expecting. Bennett addresses straight sex, gay sex, voyeurism, and extra martial sex along with a smidge of boring sex all over proper afternoon tea and with a hearty dose of British humor.

The first story is the “Greening of Mrs. Donaldson” about a 50-something year old newly widowed housewife who ends up having to take work as a medical school “exhibitionist” and rent out a room in her house in order to supplement her income. The young couple that rents out her room has difficulty paying the rent and they offer her a solution – she can watch them have sex in lieu of the money.

What transpires is a very proper voyeuristic experience. Mrs. Donaldson sits quite piously with her ankles crossed while watching the two make love. Afterwards, she makes them a cup of tea and everyone goes to bed happy. For a woman that has repressed herself nearly her entire life, this is quite a turn of events. We never see her lose her demeanor, but at the end we get a hint of the beginning of a possible sexual adventure which leaves you wondering what happens to sweet Mrs. Donaldson.

The second story, “The Shielding of Mrs. Forbes” is a bit different and speaks less to the joy of coming out and more to the farce of family life and family secrets. Graham Forbes is a dashing, narcissistic young man who marries a dowdy, but rich young woman much to the dismay of his mother who believes he is lowering himself. While Graham enjoys his life with his new wife, he can’t help but dabble in his past habit of sex with nameless men. It is one of these excursions the night before his wedding that turn everything on its head. We find that while Graham is sleeping with a prostitute/policeman, his wife is sleeping with his father and his mother is sleeping with the same man as Graham.

Both stories are clever and enjoyable. They make you want to sip a cup of tea while you read on to see what happens next. If you’re a fan of British humor and scandalous gossip, you’ll love this book as much as I did.
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Mar 26, 2012 Pamela rated it 2 of 5 stars

Just finished "Smut".

Get a kick out of the title--nothing like going to my local library, where a copy of the book was being held for me behind a busy counter, and being asked for the title by a busy assistant in front of a line of people (I gave him the author's name!). Here it is 2012, my community's library is active, modern, and well-run, and I balked at calling out "Smut!" in front of eight people!

Anyway, did enjoy this. It's the first thing I've read by Bennett. Although, overall, I was s...more

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Feb 02, 2012 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars

According to the Urban Dictionary, smut translates to highly developed stories with love lines and other things that appeal to women, with a lot of sexually explicit scenes. By that definition, is Alan Bennett’s latest novel truly about smut?

The ambiguous answer: yes but not really. Smut really tackles the theme of how those of us, living within narrow boundaries of social convention, break free from conforming to appearances. The result is entertaining, amusingly quirky British humor at its bes...more According to the Urban Dictionary, smut translates to highly developed stories with love lines and other things that appeal to women, with a lot of sexually explicit scenes. By that definition, is Alan Bennett’s latest novel truly about smut?

The ambiguous answer: yes but not really. Smut really tackles the theme of how those of us, living within narrow boundaries of social convention, break free from conforming to appearances. The result is entertaining, amusingly quirky British humor at its best.

The first of the novellas is The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson, the story of a 50-something middle-class woman “beached on the shores of widowhood” who takes in a young medical student couple as a way of supplementing her pension. At the same time, she decides to make some money as a “part-time demonstrator” for the medical school; in essence, playing the part of a person with an illness so that the student doctors can refine their diagnostic skills. In lieu of rent, her young borders offer to let her view their nightly sexual escapades. And so she begins her thrilled Walter Mitty life: actor/pretender by day and voyeur by night.

The second, The Shielding of Mrs. Forbes (there is a certain symmetry in the titles), focuses on the priggish middle-aged woman who appears blind to the fact that her handsome and narcissistic son is gay. Graham – the son – soon marries a rather dowdy but highly intelligent woman named Betty for her money and begins to enjoy her company as well. What emerges is a parlor game of misadventures as Bennett explores the ramifications of the family secret…with everyone sleeping with everyone else.

So what is Alan Bennett – the fine author and playwright of The Uncommon Reader and The History Boys, among others – trying to accomplish? For one thing, in both novellas, he shows that appearances are not as they seem at first glance Mrs. Donaldson is hardly the repressed and conventional widow nor is Mrs. Forbes the unsuspecting mother. As the two eponymous women – and the characters close to them – strive to “perform” for all those around them, the performances are ultimately semi-comical and definitely false.

This slender and compulsively page-turning book offers plenty of the trademark pleasures that those familiar with Bennett’s oeuvre will readily detect. It’s filled with witty plot twists and turns of phrases and sometimes befuddled, often repressed characters that are also sympathetic. I can think of far worse ways to pass a few hours than in the company of such fascinating characters.
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Jan 27, 2012 Anmiryam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Alan Bennett, once again unleashes his gentle satiric imagination to elucidate the lives of middle class British women of a certain age and a certain reserve. As with "The Common Reader" and "The Clothes they Stood Up In" the first long short story in this collection, "The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson" describes the intellectual, spiritual, and sexual birth of a suburban matron at a time in life the central character, and all around her, consider to be static. The aplomb with which Mrs. Donaldson...more

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Jan 04, 2012 Susan Tunis rated it 4 of 5 stars

Naughty was never so nice

I’m a fan of Alan Bennett’s wonderful plays, but my greatest affection is reserved for his charming novella The Uncommon Reader. Coming in at a slight 160 pages, Smut is similar in length, but this book is made up of two brief stories. In content, they have nothing in common with that earlier tale, but they exhibit the same trademark humor and warmth. This is a writer it’s difficult not to like. Therefore, it may be surprising to hear that Mr. Bennett is writing Smut. Th...more

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Sep 03, 2011 Bruno Bouchet rated it 4 of 5 stars

Bennet is always a delight. He's one of those authors that can slip the most powerful pathos and profundity in the seemingly mundane. Even without being his greatest works, the two stories in Smut are a joy to read contain enough nuggets of classic Bennet observations to be well worth the read. I read some criticisms that for a book called Smut, the stories really were quite tame. I think that misses the point entirely, and misses what the word smut actually means. Smut isn’t full on outrageous...more

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Jun 25, 2011 Crawford rated it 3 of 5 stars

Smut is an evocative word, of something dirty; it’s a word that invokes cringe.

I was surprised to learn that smut is a black colloidal substance consisting of amorphous carbon and used to make pigments and ink; it also refers to a destructive disease of cereal grasses caused by a fungi (Ustilaginales) that produces black powdery masses of spores; I guess that is the “dirty” connotation. The cringe comes from it being an offensive or indecent word or phrase. Some might argue that the title of th...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Robert Harken rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is not porn. Yes, I borrowed it from the library, and yes, in America one can find various shades of porn at the library because we believe in free speech. The two short stories do contain sexual situations, but the descriptions of sex never reach beyond what you might encounter in an R movie. The audio book is read by the author, which I thought would be neat to hear his interpretation of the work. However, Alan Bennett's voice lacks the seductive power I want to hear during a sex sce...more

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Apr 26, 2012 Deborah Markus rated it 5 of 5 stars

Just a few days after starting this book, I heard a caller on a podcast introduce himself as someone who has the same job as one of Bennett's main characters: someone who pretends to be a patient for doctors to practice on. A few days *before* starting this book, I'd never even heard of such work; in fact, when I started "Smut," I wondered whether Bennett had made the whole idea up.

So far the writing is funny and the story is engagingly bizarre. Interested to see where things go from here.

--Just...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Jo at Jaffareadstoo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan for a digital copy of this book.

The two novellas that make up Smut are delivered with Alan Bennett’s usual assurance and ease of style, and yet both are quite an aberration of what is normally expected from this gentle satirist.

In The Greening of Mrs Donaldson, we are introduced to the genteel world of tea and chocolate biscuits, and yet behind the net curtains, there is voyeuristic enactment that takes you completely unaware. Mrs Donaldson is a fifty-five ye...more

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Mar 10, 2012 N James Dormer rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 18, 2011 Cecily rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: humour, short-stories

Two delightful and very Bennettian short stories, each of which is best read in one go. Goodness knows what non-Brits make of them!

They are not very smutty and not very plausible, but they are great fun. As with many of his works, a combination of repressed feelings (not all of them sexual) and respectability hide thoughts, feelings and actions that may seem out of character, but are actually fundamental to who the person is. And yet the characters do not, initially at least, realise what they h...more Two delightful and very Bennettian short stories, each of which is best read in one go. Goodness knows what non-Brits make of them!

They are not very smutty and not very plausible, but they are great fun. As with many of his works, a combination of repressed feelings (not all of them sexual) and respectability hide thoughts, feelings and actions that may seem out of character, but are actually fundamental to who the person is. And yet the characters do not, initially at least, realise what they hide, "The closest she got to pretence was politeness."

The first story concerns a widow. With typical ironic understatement, Bennett compares a colleague's excitement over a camcorder, with her husband, who "had been prey to similar passing technological fancies which were equally jealously guarded... all of which his death had liberated for her promiscuous deployment, being that she no longer had to play the little woman." Ouch! Promiscuous deployment of a lawnmower seems somehow smuttier than any of the sex.

Anyway, the widow discovers a prurient side to herself, and that changes her. "Seldom having had much of a secret before... Mrs Donaldson was surprised at how strong the impulse was to share it, or at least to share the secret that she had one to share." There is always a current of pain and regret in Bennett.

The second story concerns different double-life scenarios. Mentions of a mobile phone and the internet make it firmly modern(ish), but everything else (including a 20-something called Betty) put it at least 30 years earlier.

Still, with lines like these, it really doesn't matter:

"His wife was often taken for a widow. She had so much the air of a woman who was coping magnificently, that a husband still extant took people by surprise."

The old, train-loving vicar's version of the facts of life "relied heavily on the piston, the furnace and the eccentric rod, helpful did one want to travel from London to Darlington but no preparation for the rigours of modern marriage".(less)

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Jan 01, 2012 Sam rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, humour, kindle, literary-fiction, review-copies, owned, short-stories

I'm going to start this review by stating that I am a big Alan Bennett fan (The Uncommon Reader is amongst my favourite books), so I had high expectations for this collection of two new novellas and jumped at the chance to read and review them via NetGalley. Smut contains the stories "The Greening of Mrs Donaldson" and "The Shielding of Mrs Forbes" and both are about the secrets behind the net curtains of middle-class England.

The Greening of Mrs Donaldson is about a widower who takes on a job as...more

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Apr 15, 2011 Dickon Edwards rated it 4 of 5 stars

Two wry yet poignant novellas, one of which was published in the LRB, one brand new. Weird to see Alan Bennett characters using the internet and mobile phones, when AB himself famously has no computer - he uses a manual typewriter bought from a Bradford charity shop...

Enjoyed both, though they are more of the same sort of thing: an older lady discovers an unlikely new lease of life from a sexual 'arrangement' with her tenants to pay the rent, while another older lady is kept from knowing the tr...more

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May 11, 2011 David Williams rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's probably fair to say that my rating for this book would be a little higher if I were reviewing a writer I am not familiar with, but as Alan Bennett is one of my favourite authors my expectations are proportionately greater, and 'Smut' does not not rate as highly as most in the corpus.

'Smut' comprises two longish short stories about unconventional sexuality in apparently conventional domestic situations. The fulcrum of 'The Greening of Mrs Donaldson' occurs when a student couple, tenants of...more

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Jan 27, 2013 Michael Nutt rated it 2 of 5 stars

Before my wife bought me this slim volume of two novellas by Alan Bennett for Christmas, my only experience of the author had been through his screenplay for the 'The Madness of King George' (adapted from his own stage play 'The Madness of George III'), a film which I must say I found amusing, intelligent and memorable.

I was therefore hoping to find similar qualities in 'Smut' but in truth the first story - 'The Greening of Mrs Donaldson' - was somewhat disappointing. The eponymous Mrs Donaldson...more
Before my wife bought me this slim volume of two novellas by Alan Bennett for Christmas, my only experience of the author had been through his screenplay for the 'The Madness of King George' (adapted from his own stage play 'The Madness of George III'), a film which I must say I found amusing, intelligent and memorable.

I was therefore hoping to find similar qualities in 'Smut' but in truth the first story - 'The Greening of Mrs Donaldson' - was somewhat disappointing. The eponymous Mrs Donaldson is a middle-class, middle-aged widow of a generation that did not expect much out of life and she appears to exhibit classic British reserve and decorum. One of the pleasures of the story is the way Bennett allows us to gradually realise exactly what Mrs Donaldson is up to as it unfolds. She has an unusual, but respectable, way of earning some much needed money at the local medical college to help make ends meet. And then there are the lodgers, a couple of young students who are also struggling financially and have problems paying the rent ... It was as this point that the story lurched into the improbable and failed to take me with it. As you would expect of a writer whose forte is television and theatrical drama, there are some sharp and witty conversational exchanges between his characters, but overall I found Bennett's writing here often clumsy and dull and his plot far-fetched and uninspiring. It felt to me as though Bennett had come up with an intriguing idea that he didn't quite know what to do with. It lacks subsequent development or direction, and this unseemly story takes a few unlikely narrative turns before Bennett brings it to a rapid and unlikely conclusion, as if he couldn't wait to end it.

The second story - ''The Shielding of Mrs Forbes' - is much better and I engaged with it from the outset. A domineering and snobbish mother - the Mrs Forbes of the title - is appalled when her only son, Graham, marries a plain and seemingly ordinary girl, with everyone apparently unaware of his secret life. However, finding out exactly what each of the many characters is really up to is one of the delights of this story, where nobody is quite who they seem to be. As in the previous tale, events become increasingly incredible, but here the reader is carried along by an absurd logic that drives the story forwards. The writing is full of sharp observation and dry asides (including a beautifully constructed paragraph on the inadequacy of the name Graham! - see below), although at times I still stumbled over Bennett's sentences. His style often seems to be expressive of a Northern dialect, which makes me think these stories would probably come over better in audio books, spoken in a Yorkshire tongue. Again, Bennett seems to have given up on the story in the end, as though this was a potential novel that he could not be bothered to develop, and the last three or four pages form a sort of epilogue in which Bennett foretells the fate of each character - uncovering yet more intrigue and deception in these seemingly ordinary people ("Still the secrets abound ... And so they go on".)

Just 2 stars overall, based on the first story. Although the second story is worth 3 stars, unfortunately it occupies just 72 of the 189 pages that make up this book.

Quote: "For, though she could never admit it, Graham's mother blamed herself for calling him Graham in the first place. In the years since he was born her sights had risen and Graham was not nearly the classy name she'd once thought. She wished now that she could get rid of it as she had got rid of the dark oak dining suite that belonged to the same period. But though car-boot sales exist to dispose of discarded aspirations there are no stalls dealing in our most unwanted commodities like names, relatives or one's own appearance in the glass". p118

Quote: "He does not work in a bank", said Graham's mother. "He is in banking". p123(less)

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Dec 19, 2012 Josh rated it 3 of 5 stars

I presume that there will be a similar response to Bennett's "Smut," as to Albee's "The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia?"; replacing zoophilia with a sort of sexual game of "six degrees of Kevin Bacon."

It's good to remember that these are "stories," they are not real occurrences, so taken as stories, they are quite amusing, wonderfully told in a Roald Dahl meets Evelyn Waugh meets just about any British sitcom.

quotes:

"Oh yes. They're taught it but it's life that should have taught them it. Experience....more

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Apr 25, 2013 Cristina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Dos historias nada decentes es exactamente lo que se encontrará el lector que se adentre en el último libro de Alan Bennett.

Sirviéndose de situaciones aparentemente inverosímiles, el autor trae a colación facetas de la naturaleza humana de las que habitualmente prefiere no hablarse; porque bien es sabido que de lo que no se habla, no existe. Pero él sí habla y además lo hace de un modo divertidísimo, jugando con lo absurdo y utilizando en no pocas ocasiones una crítica mordaz, aunque sin dejar d...more

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Jan 18, 2012 Michelle added it · review of another edition

Lately, there has been a spate of novels that enforce the lesson that one can never truly know someone else. While someone may portray himself in a public persona as polished and urbane, this same person could be struggling with a mental disorder or harboring a hoarding fetish. One just never knows and can never know all of the details. Smut is yet another example of this, focusing on sexual proclivities instead of other personality traits.

What is Smut? This is one instance where the author's ch...more Lately, there has been a spate of novels that enforce the lesson that one can never truly know someone else. While someone may portray himself in a public persona as polished and urbane, this same person could be struggling with a mental disorder or harboring a hoarding fetish. One just never knows and can never know all of the details. Smut is yet another example of this, focusing on sexual proclivities instead of other personality traits.

What is Smut? This is one instance where the author's choice of verbiage is quite telling. This one little word has multiple definitions, all of which apply to Bennett's stories. One definition for smut is a particle of dirt or a smudge made by soot or dirt. Yet another definition is something that is obscene in writing or speech. The third, and probably most well-known, definition is pornography. It is also a form of fungus on grains. Driving home the point that what is ordinary to some is extraordinary to others, both of Bennett's main characters experience a shift in their own definitions of smut. What both of them would have once considered obscene becomes acceptable, even commonplace. These acts become as innocent as a smudge of dirt to the main characters, while others revile their actions as akin to the lowliest form of fungi.

With a title like Smut, one would expect a fair level of explicit sex. While there are definitely sex scenes, Bennett shies away from crossing over into the pornographic. Granted, for certain readers even what is portrayed may be too much, but that is not Bennett's intent. Through Mrs. Donaldson's awakening and Graham's own experiences, the reader is meant to understand better the complexity of human nature and the fear in which each of us lives at the thought of being considered abnormal or different from others.

Because of its very nature, Smut is not for all audiences; it does take a fair amount of open-mindedness about sexuality to finish either story. For those willing and able to do so, Bennett's short stories provide tremendous insight into those who may be considered to be on the fringes of society, even if they appear perfectly ordinary to the world. Truly, what is "ordinary" and "normal" anyway?

Acknowledgements: Thank you to the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association for my advanced copy!(less)

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About Alan Bennett

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Alan Bennett is an English author and Tony Award-winning playwright. Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On, was produced in 1968. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as...more

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Quotes from Smut

“Remember. You are a physician. You are not a policeman nor are you a minister of religion. You must take people as they come. Remember, too that though you will generally know more about the condition than the patient, it is the patient who has the condition and this if nothing else bestows on him or her a kind of wisdom. You have the knowledge but that does not entitle you to be superior. Knowledge makes you the servant not the master.” — 2 people liked it

“Still, for all that everybody, while not happy, is not unhappy about it. And so they go on.” — 1 person liked it

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